don of the analysis

don of the analysis

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Prasanna raman

Born on January 23

Designation:
Performance Analyst
Previous experience:National Cricket Academy (Technical head), India U-19 cricket team, Indian hockey team, Rafael Nadal, Provident Bangalore (KPL), Karnataka Ranji team.
Prasanna’s the guy you saw on TV clenching his fist in delight when Dale Steyn bowled Yusuf Pathan in the RR-RCB clash in Jaipur (IPL 2010). There was a plan behind the dismissal, and he was the architect.
Twenty hours a day (on tour at least) he pores at his laptop screen, compiling and analyzing opposition videos on his self-developed proprietary software. These are then shown to the players after which, the team strategy is arrived at.
His expertise isn’t restricted to cricket; he’s developed video analysis software for tennis and hockey, during two big adventures in 2007. The first adventure led him to listen to one line for the first six months of 2007: “Tell me how to beat Federer” while the second put him on a plane from Bangalore to Dusseldorf in the second half of 2007 to help Indian hockey! The national team, by the way, won 30 out of the 37 matches they played while he was with them.
Abhimanyu Mithun says, “Prasanna’s impact with his analysis has been tremendous. His constant help and motivation made things easier for me and contributed greatly to my success in the previous Ranji season”
Oh, and he’s padded up too, having played state level U-19 cricket in Tamil Nadu.

Indian hand in SAs Cup campaign 

Krishna Kanta Chakraborty TNN 

Chennai: Rafael Nadal had asked Prasanna Agoram during the 2007 Chennai Open: Can you help me beat Roger Federer Prasanna,a renowned video analyst who developed his own software for cricket,tennis and hockey,could only help Nadal for a brief period as he had already taken up an assignment with the Indian hockey team.
From guiding the colts at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore,the U-19 Indian cricket team,Royal Challengers Bangalore and Karnataka Ranji team,Prasanna now has joined the South African cricket team as its offcial video analyst.And according to Prasanna,he is the first Indian to be associated with a foreign Test playing nation as a support staff.
"I sent Nadal a few materials,but unfortunately could not continue working with him for a long time, Prasanna,who hails from Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu,told TOI on Sunday.
Prasanna spends 20 hours a day with his laptop,compiling and analyzing rivals videos on his self-developed software.He shows it to the players and helps them with the strategy.
Prasanna,a qualified electronics engineer,joined the NCA in 2005 and the then India U-19 coach inducted him into the colts team during the World Cup in 2006 in Sri Lanka.
Prasanna made rapid progress as a video analyst within a short period and impressed the big shots of the cricket fraternity,subsequently getting an offer from Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008.
But it was not a smooth ride for Prasanna.Though the India hockey team won 37 matches when he was with them,Prasanna had to quit when India failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2007.
It was a tough phase,but Vijay Bharadwaj advised me to come back to cricket and do something different.
And I got an assignment with the Karnataka Ranji Trophy team and got the offer from RCB and again things started falling into place.
Since I was working with RCB,South African players like Jacques Kallis,Dale Steyn,Mark Boucher and RCB coach Ray Jennings referred my name to Cricket South Africa.
And then when we went to play in the Champions League in 2010,I had a talk with the CSA officials and I was offered a contract and joined the team during the series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, Prasanna explained.

Former India coach John Wright calls him a computer nut. More appropriate description of Prasanna Raman would be calling him a cricket nut. 
 
Former India coach John Wright calls him a computer nut. More appropriate description of Prasanna Raman would be calling him a cricket nut. Else, why on earth would anyone give up a six-figure salary job and settle for a much less-paid one — simply because, it presented him a chance to be in touch with cricket. So much so that Prasanna's e-mail address has the word 'Lara' in it. And if Lara is there can Tendulkar be far away? So he named his son Sachin! Wright in fact was so amazed with his craze for cricket that the Kiwi makes mention of Raman twice in his book Indian Summers. 

Having represented Tamil Nadu in the age-group tournaments, Prasanna, too, had high ambitions of making it big. But forced by circumstances, he had to cut short his cricketing aspirations. After his engineering degree, Prasanna landed a job in a software firm in Bangalore and was leading a 'settled' life. But his heart always craved for the game. With his playing days effectively over, the only way he thought he could be in the thick of cricketing action would be to put his computer knowledge to use. 

Developing software 
 So Raman started working on developing cricket software some four years ago. After finishing his 9 to 5 job at office, Raman would sit on his project working till early hours in to the morning. After months of effort, Prasanna came up with a product he calls In N Out — Game Analysis Software. Developing the software was one thing, but selling it to the right kind of people was another. 

"It took me almost one and a half years of running around before my product was finally accepted to be used by the National Cricket Academy to analyse its trainees," says Raman. "But the support of NCA administrative manager Col Nair was of great help in pushing my software. I had been working with him on developing a website for the NCA and he knew how my product was really helpful in analysing the players and sorting out their problems. So he really went out of his way to convince the authorities to approve it for use at the NCA," he adds. 

Last November, Raman was appointed the technical head of the NCA. To that end, his dream had come true. But his decision to quit his job at the software firm for a job with the NCA was met with great resistance by his family and relatives. His friends even called him crazy. 

But Raman had made up his mind. After all, this was for what he had burnt the midnight oil for months together and nothing was going stop him from making the switch. 

With U-19 team 
Raman travelled with the Indian team for the U-19 World Cup held in Sri Lanka early last year as their computer analyst, and he came in for some special praise from the then coach Venkatesh Prasad. 

"I think it's (software) very useful. It helped quite a bit on the tour. Later, when the team travelled without the video analyst, the players started missing the feedback. But having said that, these videos should be made use of under an instruction from the coach, for there is danger of a player mis-judging things. Prasanna I think has done a fantastic job and the best part is, he has been improving upon it," said Prasad. 

It's not just Prasad who has been impressed with Raman's work. The 30-year-old proudly shows his e-mail exchanges with Bob Woolmer, whom Raman met when Pakistan came to Bangalore in early 2005. 

Former Sri Lankan international Rumesh Ratnayake, who works with the Asian Cricket Council, in fact asked him if he would be interested in working with the Lankan cricket, but Raman wanted to be with Indian cricket and he was prepared to bide his time which eventually came his way. 

The Raman effect at NCA 

NCA WEBSITE 

This website contains complete activities of the NCA with details of the committee members, coaches, trainers, physios and specialist coaches from 2000. It contains details of all the performances and technical analysis of all categories of trainees. From the year 2004, it has detailed information about how a player (both batting and bowling) has performed in various age groups (throughout the country, zone-wise and state-wise) to help selectors study how a player has graduated every year. 

IN N OUT — GAME ANALYSIS SOFTWARE 

In N Out analyses all aspects of the game - batting, bowling and fielding. 

nBatting: Has a detailed wagon wheel with graphics, statistics and backed by appropriate video clips. A batsman's strengths and weaknesses are analysed with the following parameters: a) against a particular bowler; b) against any bowling guard; c) against any delivery type (inswing, outswing, leg-spin, off-spin etc); d) pitch of the ball (short-pitched, good length etc); e) height of the ball; f) region where the ball is played and g) type of shot played. 
Q
Bowling: Bowler can see his pitch map called Block Diagram that states how many balls bowled and runs conceded in each block like outside off-stump, good-length, middle and leg-side, short-pitched etc. Ball by ball, over by over and spell by spell analysis of where the batsmen have hit the bowlers with a video back up. 

Fielding: This gives a clear picture of how many runs saved, runs lost and catches dropped in the field with respect to each position. Also gives an idea about the ability of a fielder inside the 30-yard circle and who is good in the outfield with statistics and video clips. 

VID LIBO ( VIDEO LIBRARY) 

Vid Libo is a comprehensive collection of batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping clips from all over the world. Coaches can access all the top players in the world depending on the requirement to get the appropriate videos to demonstrate the skills to the upcoming players. 

nPenetrative Analysis Coach — Motion Analysis Software: This system helps to analyse players' technique. Video can be viewed frame-by-frame, in slow and ultra slow motion and in normal speed. Split screen can be seen and by drawing line, rectangle, and circle on the video, a batsman's flaws in technique can be analysed in detail. Similarly, bowling comparisons can be made like head falling over, flaw in the run-up or wrong grip on the ball.

At least one Indian is hoping Graeme Smith, and not MS Dhoni, lifts the World Cup this time.
"I hope we win the final and then I'll jet-set to Bangalore and join the Royal Challengers (RCB) ahead of the IPL," South Africa's Indian performance analyst Prasanna Raman told HT over phone on Sunday.
Raman has worked with the RCB since the inaugural IPL and it was on the recommendation of their coach Ray Jennings, who was in charge of South Africa earlier, that he got his current job.
Raman's stint with South Africa began with their series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates last October. "My job is to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition from video footage and feed the findings to the coach, Corrie van Zyl," Raman said.
So did he find weaknesses in the Indian team? "Well I don't want to name anybody, but if you look at the averages with which some batsmen came to the tour and the averages with which they left, then you will know if our plans worked or not," said Raman. However, the 35-year-old is quick to add: "Finally, the game's played in the middle." Employed full-time by South Africa, with a break for thre IPL, Raman will be travelling around the world with Smith and Co.

2 comments:

  1. I dont think words can describe PRASANA RAMANS efforts to achieve what he has a done till date . I am just stunned from what i have read above .. Hats off Mr.Prasana Raman

    ReplyDelete

work experience with Indian U-19s

work experience with Indian U-19s